Box making machine



BOX MAKING MACHINE Original Filed April 15, 1938 2 Shets-Sheet 1 flvew/for. 62A Yra/v 57534 W Feb. 20, 1940.

C. STRAW 7 Box MAKING MACHINE Original Filed April 13, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

WWW,

ATTORNEY.

Patented Feb. 20, 1940' UNITED STATES IPA-TENT OFFICE BOX MAKING MACHINE Clayton Straw, Henniker, N. H., assignor to Kingsbury & DavisMachine Company, Contoocook, N. H., a corporation of New'Hampshire Original application April 13, 1938, Serial No. 201,682. Divided. and this-application January 21, 1939, Serial No. 252,180

9 Claims. (01. 271-45) tures of the machine and of the operation of all parts not specifically described herein. The present invention aims to improve the said machine in the way of speeding up the operation and facilitating the adjustment of the devices for feeding the blanks, from which the boxes are to be made, accurately into position beneath thereciprocating form.

In feeding the successive blanks from the supply stack one after another into position beneath the form, the prior type of pusher or kicker of the aforesaid patents had a purely reciprocating motion and was found to pound badly when the machine was speeded up to increase its rate of production, giving rise to improper operation as well as putting destructive strains and excessive wear on the parts themselves and their driving connections.

To avoid these drawbacks, the invention provides novel blank-feeding devices which travel in an orbit or circuitous path, instead of the previous straightline reciprocating path, to engage and propel the successive blanks into position beneath theform, thus avoiding the arresting of the travel of the blank-pushing elements at each end of their-stroke which gave rise to the pounding, vibration, and excessive wear which made. it impracticable hitherto to speed up their operation. The improved type of blank-feeder preferably has the blank-pushing elements mounted on an endless chain, which by its nature operates smoothly 'and efllciently at all speeds attainable by the machine. Other supplemental improvements facilitating the adjustment and timing of the stroke of the blankfeeding devices, and also providing the novel feature of a yielding drive to prevent breakage by jammed box blanks, are also included in the present invention, all as shown in the accompanying drawings and, set forth in the following description and claims.

An illustrative embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which,

Fig. 1 is aside elevation showing the main parts of a Kingsbury & Davis quadruple stayer,

with the improved blank-feeding devices of the invention inplace thereon. I I

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the improved blankfeeding devices including the endless chain push-. er and a portion of the feed rolls delivering blanks in succession to such pusher.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the parts of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is an end View in elevationon. an enlarged scale,'from the left-hand end of Fig. 3, showing details of construction of the chain and itstrack, several links forming the bend at the end of the chain beingomitted for clarity. Fig. 5 is a side elevation on an-enlarged scale of the rubber-coveredpushing rolls on the chain.

.Fig. 6 is a plan View, partly broken away, of the friction-clutch drive for the chain pusher.

Through reference to Figs. l and 3, it will be seen that the improved blank-feeder, indicated generally by the numeral l, is located at one end of the top of the machine, directly under the middle of the floor 236 of the hopper (of usual or any preferred construction), just as In the case of the kicker previously used on this machine, to receive the flat box blanks as they are fed from the stack in. the hopper by feed slide 23,! and feed rolls 200, 202, and to push]- against the middle of their rear edges to slide them along guide rails. 204 into accurately centered position beneath the form ll. ance with the invention the rear edge of the blank is engaged by the leading one of a pair of pushers comprising rubber rollers 205, mounted on pins 208, Fig. 5, fixed in opposite ends of a link 2H1 of a roller sprocket chain 2l2 traveling in a trough 213 having a fiat bottom 2M, Fig. 4,

and side walls 2 l6 affixed to the bottom by screws, which side walls are undercut so that they engage the rollers of the chain and also so that in conjunction with central guide-strip 2H3 they over' hang the side links at the under surface of the chain, preventing upward escapev of the chain from the trough. This central guide-strip 2l8 comprises a central length of ordinary steel and two end sections of hardened steel, around the rounded ends ofwhich latter the chain reverses its direction of travel, the rollers of the chain riding on the portion of the height of this central guide which is of greater width and thus acting as frictionless, bearings at the reversing points in the chain. One or both ofv the end sections of the central guide are mounted for endwise adjustment to take up slack in the chain, by means of a loose key 220 received half in a groove in' the bottomof such end portion and half in the bottom portion ZM oi the trough,

In accord- The trough and chain are adjusted bodily inwardly and outwardly of the machine to vary the inward travel of pusher rollers 12%, by a screw 23!] threaded through a lug 232 on the bottom of the outward end of the trough and rotatably mounted without axial movement in a split hub 234 on the outward end of hopper bottom 23% fixed at 238 to stand 22%. A crank 269 is provided to turn the screw, and a clamping screw 242 turned by hand-wheel 2M clamps the split hub 23% about the shank of the screw to prevent unwanted rotation of the screw after the trough has been given its adjusted position.

The leading pusher roll 2% engages the middle of the outward edge of each blank as it is fed in and dropped between the upright flanges of guiderails 2% by feed-rolls 213 282, and pushes the blank into position against the usual stops (not shown) arresting the blanks inward travel, and the second roller 2% catches and arrests the blank if it tends to bound back as the result of being fed at high speed, the latter roll being still in position after the first one has rounded the turn; the second roller 2&6 is sometimes made of steel.

To drive the chain 252, its return run is engaged by a sprocket 246 enclosed in a housing 248 on the side of stand 224. One side of trough 2|3 is cut away to admit the teeth of sprocket 24%, throughout a distance equalling the maximum endwise adjustment of the trough. Sprocket 246 is mounted on a vertical shaft 259, driven through a flexible coupling 252 and bevel gears 254, 256, from a horizontal jack-shaft 25B, clutch 260, sprocket 252, chain 285 and sprocket 2636 from countershaft 2% of the machine.

The blank-feeding chain 2H2 makes one circuit per machine cycle. Since the length of trough 213 is such that it is never necessary to adjust the inward end of the chain more than half the length of the trough inward past feed rolls 2%, 202, for the longest blank the machine will take, the feed of any size of blank by the pusher is always accomplished in one-quarter of the machine cycle, which is the rest period of the form at the top of its stroke.

Clutch 2% serves a double purpose. It is released to permit manual setting of the chain blank-pusher to have the proper inward extent of travel and to be in proper timed relation with the particular size of blank, as the latter is delivered by the feed rolls. It also serves as a yielding drive to permit stoppage of the chain-pusher by broken-ended or jammed blanks. The casing 210 of the clutch is set-screwed and keyed to jackshaft 258, and contains a series of pockets holding expanding springs 2T2 causing an annular metal plate 27 to grip sprocket 262, free on shaft 255, between leather washers 216, the outer one of such washers bearing against the flange of a hand-nut 278 threaded onto the end of shaft 258. As the outward movement of plate 214 is limited by pins 283 having other smaller pins through their extremities outside housing 210, hand-nut 218 can be quickly backed ofi to release sprocket 2G2 completely.

Lower feed roll 202 is reduced in diameter as indicated at 282 to provide clearance for the pusher rolls 296.

While I have illustrated and described a certain form in which the invention may be embodied, I am aware that many modifications may be made therein by any person skilled in the art, without departing from the scopeof the invention as expressed in the claims. Therefore, I do not wish to be limited to the particular form shown, or to the details of construction thereof, but

What I do claim is: i

1. In a box-making machine, in combination, blank-feeding devices including an endless chain lying wholly in planes parallel to the blank while ,the latter is being fed thereby, blank-propelling elements mounted thereon and traveling therewith and extending at right angles to such planes and into the plane of the fed blank, and means for driving such chain.

2. In a box-making machine, in combination, blank-feeding devices including an endless chain, blank-propelling elements mounted thereon and traveling therewith, means for driving such chain, and single means for moving the chain in the line of its travel bodily as a unit inwardly and outwardly of the machine.

3. In a box-making machine, in combination, blank-feeding devices including an endless chain, blank-propelling elements mounted thereon and traveling therewith, means for driving such chain, means for moving the chain in the line of its travel bodily inwardly and outwardly of the machine, and means disconnectably clutching the chain to its driving means to permit change of the timed relation between its blank-propelling elements and the other parts of the machine.

4. A blank-feeder for box-making machines comprising in combination, an endless chain,

blank-propelling means on such chain and carried thereby successively inwardly and outwardly iii) of the machine, a guiding member on which the chain runs and having portions around which the chain reverses its direction of travel at each end of its runs, and means mounting such guiding member on the machine with capacity for adjustment of the position of the guiding member inwardly and outwardly of the machine to lengthen or shorten the distance to which the blank is propelled. 1

5. Blank-feeding devices for box-making machines having a form, including in combination a support for a stack of flat blanks, and feeding means travelling in an orbit which includes a component of movement which extends from the support toward the form, propelling the blanks one by one into position beneath the form and remaining in propelling engagement with the successive blanks until its travel is at right angles to that of the blanks and thereafter receding from the blanks. I v

6. Blank-feeding devices for box-making machines having a form, including in combination a support for a stack of flat blanks, primary feeding means feeding the blanks iromsuch stack one by one, secondary feeding means travelling in an orbit having a direction of extent from the support toward the form pushing each blank from the point where it is left by the primary feeding means to final position beneath the form, and means for varying the limit of approach of the secondary means toward the form.

7. Blank-feeding devices for box-making machines having a reciprocating form, including in combination a support for a stack of flat blanks, a travelling pusher propelling the blanks from the support to a position beneath the form, driving means imparting a constant scope of travel to the pusher, means varying the position of the limits of travel of the pusher without changing its scope, and means disconnecting the pusher from its driving means during such varying whereby its proper timed relation to the reciprocating form is attained.

8. Blank-feeding devices for box-making machines having a reciprocating form, including in combination a support for a stack of blanks, an endless chain, a blank-engaging element carried thereby, a guide for such chain, means combined with the support for shifting the chain and its guide as a unit toward and from the reciprocating form, a sprocket propelling the chain, drive means actuating the sprocket and thus the blankcombination a support-for a stack of flat blanks, a

traveling pusher propelling the blanks one'by one from the support to a position beneath the form, and yieldable friction driving means for the pusher permitting manual change of the limit of its travel toward the form and of its operative timed relation to the form and also permitting arrest of the pusher in'its course by ajammed blank without breakage or injury of parts of the machine. I

CLAYTONY-STRAW. 

